Toys R Us Launches Game Trade-Ins Nationwide

Someone tell us how their values compare to some popular places like GameStop and Amazon? I'm curious.

@High Speed Indeed: Just because they are in their original packaging doesn't mean they are in good condition. I don't think many online collectors want a game with the label worn down, box bent, and since it doesn't mention it, the manual missing.

Skyman747

@Stinkfinger: No one says that Toys R Us is going to be selling the games they take for trade in, just that they are taking them for credit.

GameStop/Babbage's/Software Etc did this early on when they took trade ins back in the late 90's. They'd take the trade ins, and sell them off to another company that took care of selling the used games.

It wasn't until later on that GameStop decided to do it all on their own.

Aren't old games in their original packaging fetching high prices among collectors? I don't see how Toys R Us can compete with some the prices those games command on eBay.

High Speed Indeed

So now I have a decent excuse, other than Pokémon events, to go to Toys Я us. Awesome.

ClaudioIphigenia

I'd really like for them to accept loose cartridges because then there will be more games for me to buy. Man, I'm getting a little excited about this.

You're telling me the only way to trade in old school games is to have them in the ORIGINAL packaging?

Don't see that happening myself. But that's just me.

@MyBigToe: Sweet! They support the 32X!

Time to get another copy of Spiderman Web of Fire!

n00b_pwner

From the 2600 on up is a pretty incredible policy. However, last time I was in a Toys R Us it didn't seem to me that they would have the floor space to accommodate all of this new merch they're sure to be taking in. With Gamestop's business model being tested by the likes of Toys R Us, Amazon and Best Buy this can only mean great things ahead for us gamers.

Stinkfinger

Here's comes the hundreds of copies of old wrestling and sports games from people who haven't bought a new game since the Clinton administration.

AncientUnknown1

32 Bit Genesis?

MyBigToe

Even original Xbox games? Because this would've been good for me until I essentially gave most of those games away.

I would love to call Toys Я Us "Toys ЯR Us", or "Toys Yar us".

Ya is the sound of the backwards R anyway...

n00b_pwner

They're going to want the original for old games like Atari? Ya good luck with that.

Cyrian

I can't see them getting many old school games in their original packaging. Although, if Toys R Us stores are going to have random old school games popping up I'll have to start checking the place out more often.

Will this be coming up north to Canada as well?

lolgreg

SWEET! I used to frequently check best buy and got some awesome classic stuff for cheap back when they were testing out their old trade in sytem a few years ago. Sounds like i may need to start frequenting TRU now.

Good luck Toys r us.
Anyone who has kept their original packages from anything prioe to PS1 is not going to take $2-3 for that Megaman 6 game, Final fantasy 1...

This is good and ridiculous at the same time

But if I can find me a full Turbo graphix/cd setup for under $100 Oh how happy I will be

Ur-Lord-Crypy

I kept all of the boxes and manuals for every game I ever owned. That means I still have games for the Texas Instruments TI99-4A in their original boxes. Hunt the Wumpus...on cassette.
I still have about 60 Sega Master System games as well.

@awkner:

i want my line racers damnit!

WHAT WHAT WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT???!?!

but but but where will they all go???

o no....o god no...not the E.T. landfill....please...anything but that!

In all seriousness thou, some of the stuff they are going to receive will probably be worth quite a bit of money.

Iv tried best buy now i must try this

Anyone with vintage games would probably be much better served by selling their games online to collectors. Amend that. Anyone with games period would be better off selling their games online to get a better price.

@jubella: Quite possibly it is irrelevant, much like it is for used cars in lots of cases.

The act of getting a customer into a store and actively purchasing new games or toys probably has a definable value to the store. This is the same effect that makes advertising with Google AdWords effective. Customers are worth "$X", so you can decide to spend $1 or $2 per used cartridge just for the sake of getting new meat into your store.

They might have a much fancier system in place that takes into account collectability, but I kind of doubt it.

Great, I can finally drop off my Steel battalion!!

Melhavic

I would pay good money for some Intellivision II wares - especially controllers

Lex San

@jobocan: Look at it on the side of the person buying the game.

Having the box (and somewhere nice to store it) is a nice thing.

Funcoland is back! Perhaps now I can find the Sega CD version of Snatcher at a reasonable price.

OMG! TRON!

I wonder how they're figuring out what the worth of a 20 year old game is?

jubella

AWESOME! I cant wait!

jikifreak

Am I the only one to think requiring the original packages is pretty stupid?
People who actually kept their original packaging (which was pretty rare for games that came in cardboard boxes) might as well just sell their games on ebay and get a lot more than Toys r us will be willing to give.... that is unless they really overcharge for old games.

Original game in the original packaging on vintage games and hopefully at a reasonable price, from consumer-to-store and vice versa? I would really like this if done right.

Trowble (XBL/PSN)

@Cyrian: Start with digging up the entire E.T. landfill and make a quick buck.

n00b_pwner

haha- if someone has atari 2600 games in their original boxes, they'd be dumb to sell them to Toys R Us as opposed to eBay or something.

I hope this works well, but I have two fears.

A. they wont offer any real money for those old games.

B. the only old games they will get are old sports games.

I mostly fear B as I had a place near me when I went to collage that supported buying older games, and all they had were sports games... and not because they wanted them <

I'd imagine a 32-bit Sega Genesis would be worth quite a bit of money. They're quite a rarity. Some would even go as far as to say impossible to find...

shufflemoomin

@zulux21: Yeah, it is stupid. My store takes used games and we have about 50 billion copies of different sports games from every era. I've never sold one except obviously for current or last gen systems.

@ebakrevs: About the same that we do as well where I work. Most of them only sell for around a dollar and we over charge for most of the Atari games at that price.

I'm hoping Toys R Us will also sell the trade-ins they receive. I could use some cheap Saturn, Sega CD, or 2600 games :)

@jobocan: I have a ton of old NES, Sega Master System, and Atari 2600 games without the original boxes. It's silly for them to require a box on games so old. I still have most of the manuals though :)

@jobocan: A lot of people are way too lazy to do that and would rather get a quick fix and take store credit.

@jubella: They could use VGPC's point of sale system, which automatically determines trade in value and sale price based on average eBay going rates.

@Chestnut Bowl: Try Play N Trade. If a copy ever gets traded in, it's in their Point of Sale system priced at $4.99. A friend of mine picked up a mint copy once for that price (and neither of us have ever seen it again at any of the five PnT stores in my area).

@Southrncomfortjm: And yet, most people don't because they are too lazy which is a damn shame, but usually winds up benefiting me.

@jomama22: I've got a few copies of E.T. for the 2600 complete in box... I should trade one into a Toys R Us, just so it can sit on the shelf for eternity.

@High Speed Indeed: People aren't that smart. Someone just sold us a copy of Tactics Ogre for the PS1 the other day, and we gave him $9 dollars. Go look at the worth of that one.

@Ur-Lord-Crypy: You'd be surprised, people have traded in working, complete in box, Sega Nomad systems to my local Play N Trade for $1.00. Also, I found a complete in box copy of E.V.O.: Search for Eden (SNES) for $4.99 at that same store, so some idiot traded it in for $1.00 or less. You'd be surprised how stupid some people are when it comes to the value of retro games.

Where I work we only give 25 cents for atari games, and most genesis games are only 50 cents. It sucks, but most of those games dont have any value. Now NES, SNES, and PSX are a different story.

@MR. FAP☆FAP! ｡◕‿◕｡: You can actually get a lot of new and sealed Atari games for dirt cheap on eBay. They aren't universally worth money or something.

Wow, this is great news. More places to visit on top of the Play N Trade stores I already frequent. Any mention on whether the retro games will be sold in the store they were traded to or shipped to a warehouse and sold elsewhere? I don't want to have my hopes crushed when all the retro stuff gets shipped to special stores that are nowhere near my area.

I think this is great. There's still a market for older games and systems. It's also a niche not being exploited by the bigger chains such as gamestop and best buy.If gamestop kept the Funcoland brand going, they would have had a lock on this market early on, but they decided to go with the current and last generation, which they are in the process of phasing out slowly.this is great news for gamers in general.I think in terms of original packaging they mean, the case, game and manual, I don't think they mean original boxes and packing materials. Then again, if you still have those, kudos!My biggest gripe was always how Gamestop tried charging me an arm and a leg for a game that had no original case, artwork or manual, just a horribly scratched disk. Hopefully this leads to people taking better care of their games, and raises the bar on what is acceptable in terms of trade-ins across the board.

vactoxic

@DNinja: I've got a feeling that they won't sell the trade-ins in-store... nothing in the official press release even mentions that the store will be selling used product.

@shufflemoomin: I think he was referring to the 32x, which technically is a 32-bit Genesis.

I hope they pay more than Gamestop. 30$ for Batman: AA... bullshit.

"... by accepting games from even the oldest systems, including the original Atari 2600 and 32-bit Sega Genesis."

So Toys R US will be using Ebay. That is where the rare games will go. lol

@SanjiX: "Sega CD on the other hand..." are common as well SanjiX. At least 'round these parts they are. Now units that actually work are an entirely different matter. :P

Cyberxion101

@lilaliendog: yah :|

Oy my God, I actually owned that Tron game! I feel old.

Jerry Blanton

@Jekku: indeed especially the pre cd era

lilaliendog

@Doomstink: I wouldn't call them stupid, I would just say they are out of the loop! Not everyone cares about games as much as we do!

Knaaks

@Doomstink: I've got that same feeling, but I'm hoping I'm wrong.

@Doomstink: Well, people think that old = valuable, which isn't the case at all. Atari games are really common, and for the most part, REALLY terrible.

Knaaks

"As long as the customer supplies the original game in the original packaging, they can exchange their games for store credit good at Toys R Us and Babies R Us stores, along with the corresponding online outlets."

Well, that eliminates a lot of older games from being traded in.

@ebakrevs: Yep, same here, but it really depends on the game. As much as I love Sonic 2, when I've got 48 copies of it in my backroom (Which I do, I just checked!) I'm not gonna give anyone more then a quarter for it!

Knaaks

@Doomstink: Are you serious? They literally go for $20 NEW. Right now. 32X's are common. Sega CD on the other hand...

Holy crap! I hope they resell the old games! I'm gonna be all over Toys R Us!

@Jekku: Yes, but that's how I try to find all my old stuff, so for me, this is awesome, and I'll be checking out thier old games pretty frequently now... or whenever they actually start getting some trade-ins.

@TJH518: I doubt that they'll pay much more than a buck or 2 if at all as that's the only thing that'd make it worth the shelf space for carying this stuff.

@Knaaks:
I didn't say they would be valuable. Just that, as anyone who has ever traded anything in knows, you can get a lot more money for it by selling it directly to another person, as opposed to a store like Gamestop.

I know you can get el cheapo 2600 games on eBay...you also have lots of collectors shopping on eBay for stuff like that, is all.

So where do we find trade-in values? I will trade stuff in a heartbeat if they freaking list the values somewhere instead of leaving us in the dark.

Wow I have an intellevision still with games like advanced dungeons & dragons, Tron Deadly Discs, Lock & Chase, Donkey Kong, Utopia, Astrosmash, and a bunch more I can't remember. But I couldn't sell it, too many memories came from it.

I seem to remember Toys R Us trying this before in 1995. Nothing like getting 40 bucks for freaking WEAPONLORD for the SNES with no box. I paid for my first PSX, less then 90 days after launch with a RF switch and memory card with SNES trade ins.

I also remember a poster commenting months ago on how TRU pretty much got bent over six ways from Sunday on values as people would raid the bargain bins elsewhere, then trade in the semi-worthless software to TRU for big prices.

As for taking older titles, most well run mom and pop stores will already do that and give you better then what TRU will.

@Cyberxion101: hey, my first gen worked great, I just had to disassemble it and reassemble it anytime I wanted to change discs because the tray wouldn't eject fully. But aside from that minor detail it worked perfectly!

I wonder if I can find a new SNES... mine seem to have been damage somehow in the process of moving... and it won't power on anymore....
*tear*

Sesshu

Will they also accept games for my TurboGrafx-35 or my 128-bit Nintendo 64?

Getting away from insulting Toys """R""" Us's ignorant execs, there's a great place in Minneapolis that sells vintage games for everything from 3DO to 2600: Discland. Picked up a disc-only Keoi Flying Squadron for $1.50 once. If you're in that neck of the woods, check 'em out.

LeepNasty

Ha! I have Tron Deadly Discs, and in the original box plus the instruction manual. I also have both of the controller inserts, but they've gotten a fair amount of use by now. Shoot, I have all my Intellivision original packaging!

@smcallah: Personally, I don't think they will be selling them in the store, either. And as a company, Toys R Us sucks, so I honestly think their trade in values will be pretty lame.

At least the good news is, the morons at the one I used to work at (they're all still there, and I quit 3 years ago) will now have no valid excuse for not knowing a game exists. "Where do you come up with all of these retarded games?" which was in reference to Shadow Hearts. Yeah... -_-;

Takara_Kitsune

Hey, Tron Deadly Discs! I loved that game!

@Zerorush: Because the demand for used Atari and SNES games is so high.

@Lordd_G: But, yeah, the Genesis (even with the 32X) was about as much "32 bit" as Jaguar was "64 bit"...

Lordd_G

@LeepNasty: remember the 32X add on for the Genesis? I do, since I own one...I'm willing to bet that's what the exec was referring to.

@laser beams: I'll give you my 32X for free!

Lordd_G

-Games must be in original packaging

Who in the hell is still going to have the original packaging for Atari games? Hell nobody even has the original packaging for their SNES games. Their program has failed already.

Zerorush

i need to get me one of them 32-bit Sega Genesis systems!!!

Too bad. Here I was thinking that Toys R Us would, oddly, become the best place for one to go shopping for obscure older titles.

(Update: Just got a message from a Toys R Us representative explaining that the games will not be going up for resell in Toys R Us stores. "The games will be collected by a third party that will then resell the games to retailers across the country.")

In all likelyhood, the involvement of a third party means that you will get less for your games than a Gamestop, or that they'll be more expensive on resale.

The problem I see with this program is in the original article: "As long as the customer supplies the original game in the original packaging". Who still has all of their original packaging for their oh-so-old systems like Intellivision/NES/SNES/Genesis, etc? I mean, if you do, more power to you, but I can't imagine that the average person/gamer will still have all the BOXES to go with their old games as well. I know I don't, so no way that I can take advantage of this program. :(

Highlar

So... what? Are they paying .50 cents for my Mega Man 6 game? Are they paying 2 dollars for my Super Mario All-Stars game? I'm sure as hell not selling any of them if that's the case.

And since I don't have OG packaging for anything, I might as well get a much higher price in Ebay.

I already have the pleasure of getting ripped off at Gamestop with trade-ins. Why in the world do I need another option for this? The fact they will rip me off for my vintage games is supposed to make me happy? I trade my 2600, NES, and SNES games with other people on Switchgames.com and I pay nothing.

The Mega Drive isn't 32-bit, sounds like someone's got his wires crossed. That, or they're so flexible they'll even take 32X cartridges. =P

Nice idea, though! Pity they won't actually sell any of the games themselves.

Great. Even with another game store on their ass, Game Xchange will still find a way to survive! They always do.

@smcallah: True, but seeing a copy of Keystone Kapers on a shelf again would be pretty damn cool.

Stinkfinger

@Lordd_G: LOL. thanx, but no thanx ;)

@lilaliendog: Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm referring to.

How interesting that TRU is not going to sell the traded-in games. I imagine it has to do with shelf space concerns. Most "R Zones" are packed as is with content for the current systems. It would be a nightmare to try and display them in the current setup, and an attempt to reorganize every store would be costly.

Still, there is some upside to this program. Smaller retailers in the US could see an influx of a wide range of classic games to order for their shops, and TRU will see increased foot traffic from those looking to trade games (and, of course, shop).

To those who are wondering, apparently Toys' R' Us uses this website for their TIV's:

[www.gamersfactory.com]

SuperZombieMonkey

"That's a missed opportunity right there."

No kidding, it'd be awesome to buy really old games from there again.

Rajolae

@bearbyteshh: My biggest regret was trading in all my Sqauresoft SNES games in the rush to get a Playstation. I really should have kept those..

@Foxstar is in love with Kotaku's two Brians.: Yeah. I too traded in all my SNES stuff for a PSX. I think it was at Funcoland if I remember correctly. I don't trade in consoles anymore though, as I always end up regretting it, and repurchasing them at some point down the road.

bearbyteshh